The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

The Principal Wife

The Principal Wife

1984
(American, b. 1934)
Overall: 254 x 203.2 x 20.4 cm (100 x 80 x 8 1/16 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Hicks has studied textile traditions in South America, Mexico, Morocco, and India throughout her six-decade career, and combines indigenous techniques with modernist ideals to create her hanging fiber works.

Description

The Principal Wife is part of a larger series by the pioneering fiber artist Sheila Hicks. To make these works Hicks wraps bundles of undyed linen thread with brightly dyed thread at random intervals to form dynamic hangings that cascade down the wall. Like an object found in nature, this sculpture combines both structure and spontaneity. The linen fibers are fastidiously wrapped in colored threads, while the organic draping of the fiber bundles is left to gravity.
  • 1984–2011
    Collection of José and Watson Blair
    2011
    Watson K. Blair, Hobe Sound, FL, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2011–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Simon, Joan, Sheila Hicks, Susan C. Faxon, and Whitney Chadwick. Sheila Hicks: 50 Years. Andover, Mass: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, 2010
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 371
  • Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
  • {{cite web|title=The Principal Wife|url=false|author=Sheila Hicks|year=1984|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2011.32